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Italian GP: Where was red flag? De Vries shines, drivers battle for 2nd

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Following each race weekend this season, theScore's editors will offer their takeaways. We continue with the Italian GP.

That was a snoozer

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There's nothing like finishing a race under a safety car.

There was hope that a jumbled starting grid would bring excitement to Monza, but there was little to cheer about in the end.

Max Verstappen secured his fifth straight victory despite starting seventh. He made it all the way up to a podium spot by the end of Lap 1 and cruised to his first Italian GP win. It was a completely dominant performance from the soon-to-be two-time world champion.

Daniel Ricciardo almost salvaged things from an entertainment standpoint by causing a safety car on Lap 47 when his car retired on track. But despite the McLaren needing to be towed, the race wasn't red-flagged and instead finished under the safety car.

"The end was frustrating. I wish we could have gone racing. It's a shame," second-place finisher Charles Leclerc said.

The debate following the race was whether there should have been a red flag. On Lap 50, the marshals realized they couldn't move the car and needed the cherry picker. The FIA race director followed procedure, but the sport needs to consider adjusting the rule to ensure we avoid endings like Sunday.

There's no reason to have drivers following a safety car for five-plus laps.

"I think there was plenty of time for the FIA to act differently today," Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said. "To wait so (long) is simply wrong and it's not great for the sport. After Abu Dhabi last year, we had long discussions on how to improve because the final objective is to try to restart the race in a safe manner, and I think today certainly it could have happened. FIA changed a lot but still I think they need more experience."

Of course, this brings immediate flashbacks to Abu Dhabi and Michael Masi, when the former race director opted to not finish the race under a safety car. It's tough to argue against a new race director playing it safe in Italy and following the book given the recent controversy, but that was not entertaining to watch.

"As the safety of the recovery operation is our only priority, and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under safety car following the procedures agreed between the FIA and all Competitors," an FIA spokesman said. "The timing of the safety car period within a race has no bearing on this procedure."

Red-flagging the race would have been unfair to Verstappen, who was well ahead of Leclerc while dominating the race, but it would have led to a much more exciting finish. The question is how to make the race exciting while not jeopardizing the sport's integrity.

"We don't want to win a race under a safety car, and that's something we've talked about for many, many years. We should finish racing. There was enough time to get that race going," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "We had a faster car and would like to have won the race on the track and not behind the safety car. We share the disappointment with all the fans."

Sunday's result would have at least sat well with Mercedes last season, though.

"The race director will always be under critic. This time they followed the rules. Maybe they could have done it a lap earlier, but at least this time they followed the rules," Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said. - Brandon Wile

We still have the race for 2nd

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Verstappen stretched his lead in the drivers' standings to 116 points over Leclerc and can wrap up the championship as soon as next race in Singapore.

There's obviously not as much prestige in finishing second, but it should be exciting to see how four drivers fight for runner-up over the final six races, and how things shake out behind Verstappen will clearly be important to them.

Driver Points Difference Best finish
Charles Leclerc 219 -- 4th (2019)
Sergio Perez 210 -9 4th (2021)
George Russell 203 -16 15th (2021)
Carlos Sainz 187 -32 5th (2021)

We're continuing to see a passing of the torch. Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas, and Sebastian Vettel have finished in either first or second in the drivers' standings over the last five seasons.

Vettel is set to retire, Bottas downgraded to a much worse car, and Hamilton looks destined to end this season in sixth - the worst finish of his 16-year career.

Hamilton announced earlier this week that he has no plans to retire anytime soon, and Mercedes should be improved next season, but it feels like the youth movement is in full force.

The hope, however, is that we're not beginning an era of extended dominance from Verstappen. - Wile

De Vries has dream debut

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While the 2022 Italian GP was a bit of a snooze-fest, there will still be plenty of celebrations at Williams.

Nyck de Vries' F1 career began about as well as any driver could possibly hope for, and if teams with a vacancy for next year needed any additional reason to add the 27-year-old Dutchman, they got it.

The Formula E champion finished ninth in his debut, accruing 33% of Williams' points for the 2022 season in a single race and placing six spots up on teammate Nicholas Latifi who could only manage to best Kevin Magnussen and the DNFs. And he did this all while only getting into the car by final practice. It's an astounding accomplishment.

"No training, jumped in a car that he hasn't driven, goes straight into FP3. It showed what he's capable of doing," Wolff said.

So, this begs the question: Which team will be lucky enough to add De Vries to the roster next season?

Oscar Piastri has McLaren's vacancy locked up, so that's one potential landing spot gone. It was an embarrassing debacle for Alpine to not give Fernando Alonso's spot to Piastri and allow McLaren to poach him, but De Vries would seem like more than a consolation prize.

There are rumors that seat could end up belonging to Pierre Gasly, though, if AlphaTauri bring in Colton Herta who is currently trying to qualify for his Super License. That would leave Alfa Romeo (Zhou Guanyu has impressed in his debut season and brings sponsors), Haas, and Williams.

"It's out of my hands. Obviously, I am not entitled to decide any driver lineup, so that's not up to me," De Vries said of his future. "I am very grateful and happy that I took this opportunity and was allowed to live this moment."

He added: "Someone else's misfortune became my fortune, and that's why I'm so grateful it turned out well. But in this world, not everything is based on merit and there are more factors that play a role in deciding a lineup. I'm glad I showed a little bit of myself this weekend."

While pulling into pit row following the impressive debut, De Vries notified his crew that his shoulders were "dead." It's no wonder, really, as no one has carried the team quite as well since Russell left.

"To score points on your debut in a Williams is pretty spectacular," Russell said of De Vries. - Michael Bradburn

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